A Fifteenth-Century Independent School
Towards the end of the 14th century a child was found abandoned beside the road leading to the tiny town of Sevenoaks. According to the custom he was named after the town. He grew up to become William Sevenoke, Mayor of London, Warden of the Grocers' Company and a friend of Henry V. As a thank-offering for his share in the victory of Agincourt in 1415, he founded a school and an almshouse in the place of his humble origin. The school is one of the three oldest lay foundations in England.
For centuries it remained small and local. Today, admitting boys and girls at 11, 13 and 16, Sevenoaks has 1000 pupils including nearly 340 boarders and occupies a hundred wooded acres adjoining the thousand acres of Knole. The buildings range in style from eighteenth-century Palladian to uncompromisingly contemporary.
Sevenoaks is an Independent School represented on the Headmasters' Conference and the Governing Bodies' Association.